Chances
by chaserzachsmith
Summary: Moments between two former DA students.
1. Chapter 1

Zacharias is half-asleep and a bit hungover, and he accidentally splashes some hot coffee on his hand.

"Fuck," he mutters, which isn't charming or professional. He tries to focus on his hand enough to see if he's really hurt, but someone behind him clears his throat. He swears again and moves out of the way.

It's some middle aged Magical Maintenance man, looking pathetically frazzled. The Magical Maintenance department lately is always looking pathetic and frazzled, they're one of the departments most strapped for cash lately. Most of the departments are, all of them but the goddamn Aurors. The other secretary in Transportation was let go last month and now Zach is doing enough work for two secretaries.

But at least the coffee is still free.

He gets back into the line behind Cho Chang and wishes after a moment that he had waited for the line to get longer. That way, he could loiter here longer and avoid his work. And he can tell she recognises him and he doesn't like that.

Funny thing, that. He used to know her mostly as a Quidditch rival. A pretty good one, too, before fourth year. Then she'd been Cedric's girlfriend. Then she'd been in the DA with him, then she'd been the girl who abandoned the DA.

But Cho had turned on the DA out of loyalty to her friend, and Zacharias had done the same out of fear.

He tells himself that fear had been a product of loyalty- fear for himself and for his family and his House- but he knows himself too well to believe it.

"It's Zacharias, right?" says Cho.

Zach clears his throat. "Yeah," he says, somewhat lamely. "Cho?"

"Yeah," says Cho.

There's a short moment. "I remember you from Quidditch," blurts Zach.

She looks immensely relieved at this opportunity to talk about something as easy as Quidditch. "Yes! You were a Chaser, right?"

"Yep! Made Captain in fifth year," he says. He remembers too late that it's because Cedric had died. Hopefully Cho doesn't put two and two together.

Cho nods. "Right, I remember. We beat you that year."

"That was the only game you won," he protests. "We were not the worst team-"

It's the sad truth, though- Hufflepuff's players were certainly enthusiastic, certainly athletic, but that only carried them so far.

"The worst team was Slytherin," says Cho. "Half of their wins were just foul play and good Keeping on penalty shots."

Zach nods and smiles a little. Cho reaches the front of the line and turns back around to start making herself coffee. Her ponytail moves like a pendelum with her motions- it's mesmerising, and he almost doesn't notice when the station next to her becomes available.

"I'll see you around," Cho says, taking her coffee and leaving.

Zach, truthfully, doesn't want to see her around. She reminds him painfully of Cedric. More than that, she reminds him of the DA and what he's done.

And, perhaps more importantly, what he hasn't.


	2. Chapter 2

The Transportation Department already had three Chasers on the unofficial Department Quidditch team, so Zach compromises and plays Keeper. The team captain, a Floo Network Manager named Amariah Brett, is a Beater, and tells him privately that she hopes his youth can give them an edge, since their team is pretty pathetic.

"We've been battling for last place with the Unspeakables for five years," she says. "The Department of Mysteries does not prioritise intradepartmental Quidditch."

"And Transportation does?" says Zach.

"The difference between us and the Unspeakables," says Brett, "is that they like their jobs."

Zach isn't much for interdepartment unity, which is the purpose of the Ministry Quidditch. He hates his job and all of his colleagues annoy him. However, he likes Quidditch- in school it was the only thing he really cared about- enough to suck it up and socialize.

"Magical Games and Sports always wins," Brett explains, on the day of the first match. "Unspeakables usually lose. Until you showed up, we had the second worst team, since I was the only player under fifty."

"Okay," says Zach. He doesn't care that much. Brett chatters on about Experimental Charms and the Foreign Ambassadors who formed a team to protest not being included. Zacharias inspects his shoe. There's a scuff on the heel.

They lose to Experimental Charms when Cho Chang gets the Snitch. She comes over after the match, much to his horror, and shakes his hand and says he played well.

"We lost," he says.

"Your team is terrible," she says.

"God, I know," he says. "I thought it was bad in sixth year when the only Beaters I could find were O'Rourke and Rickett-"

He realises too late that now he's stuck in a conversation, but bitching about people and Quidditch has always been his weakness.

"My seventh year, we only had one Chaser who could, you know, chase," says Cho.

"You win," says Zach.

"Wanna go get a drink?" she says. "Looks like you could use one."

"I'm busy," he says automatically. He has important plans to drink in bed alone, and they're not friends.

"Alright then," says Cho. "I have paperwork to do anyway."

Her ponytail swings around and almost hits him when she marches off. Zach watches her go, then turns and wipes his face with a towel.


	3. Chapter 3

Zach has started going to work earlier just so that he gets coffee earlier, and has thus managed to avoid Cho Chang for three weeks. He isn't going out of his way or anything.

Well, he is, but he's gone very much out of his way to avoid most of the DA. Which is a nightmare. Especially because Sally-Anne Perks is in Magical Maintenance and the lights in the Transportation Department can't be trusted to work reliably for more than a week. And Hannah Abbott works at the best pub in Diagon Alley, so he has to go to Muggle ones. And during the summer, Rose Zeller works at her parents' grocery, so he has to go to a Muggle grocery.

And _forget_ going anywhere near MLE.

But here he is, in line to the coffee stand, half asleep to the point that he doesn't hear at first when Cho Chang says, "Hi, Zacharias."

He wonders if he can ignore her, but politeness wins out and he turns and nods. "Hi, Cho."

"I heard about that Floo killer," she said. "Is that making a lot of work for you guys?"

"Not really for me," says Zach. "I'm just the secretary."

"MLE is throwing a fit about it," she says. "This is the biggest thing since, you know."

"We're just dealing with all the hysterical people asking to be taken off the network," says Zach, who isn't interested in acknowledging that the 'you know' had happened. There is nothing better than denial.

"Not surprising," says Cho. She tucks a few stray hairs behind her ear. There is an awkward pause. The line moves forward another stop.

"You wanna go get real coffee sometime?" Cho asks.

"This is real coffee," says Zach. Cho snorts.

"You never seem to do anything," she says. "That's no way to live."

"What's it to you?" Zach asks. He already has an idea of what it is to her, and he'll be damned if his friendlessness gets ruined.

"It's a lot to me!" Cho says, starting to frown. "After Cedric died-"

"Who said _anything_ about Cedric?" Zach snaps. He swivels around again and stares stonily straight ahead.

"I only meant," says Cho.

Zach pours himself a cup of coffee and walks away without even bothering with milk or sugar. He doesn't look back at her.


	4. Chapter 4

They can't avoid each other forever. Or rather, he can't avoid her forever. He rather doubts she's going to the same lengths he is. He's going to fucking ridiculous lengths.

He's made it a few months when he gets to the coffee line and sees Cho already there. She passes him the creamer before he can ask and turns to leave; he kicks himself mentally and says "Wait!"

"What?" she says.

He doesn't actually have anything to say. "Are you going to- to the match?" he says.

She gives him a frosty look. "I'm _in_ the match." It's Experimental Charms versus Magical Law Enforcement.

Oh, right. MLE, which means Zacharias should avoid it like the plague. The Aurors are stuffed with people from his year or younger who don't have high opinions of him.

"I'll see you there then," he says.

She arches one eyebrow. He hopes she realises what a sacrifice he's making with this. As far as he's concerned he'd rather die than talk to Ron Weasley or Harry Potter. Though she'd dated Harry Potter once, so he's sure she feels similarly.

It's a close match, familiar in a sense. Cho, either spiteful or nostalgic, blocks Harry's motions the same way she'd done in third year- the year that the game against Gryffindor had been interrupted by dementors. Cedric had wanted the match rescored. Bleeding heart Cedric.

Harry gets the snitch though- stupid Aurors and their high-grade salaries and that top-notch broom- and Cho comes over to the sidelines, as the Aurors and lawyers cluster around chanting "MLE! MLE!"

"I thought you were avoiding me," she says.

"Where'd you get an idea like that?" says Zacharias, who'd started making coffee at home, Apparating straight to the transportation department, and frequenting seedier and seedier bars, just in case.

"I dunno," says Cho. "I thought for sure you were avoiding the Aurors."

"You have such a low opinion of me," says Zacharias, who had faked a stomach bug the one time the Aurors had needed something from his department, and hid in the bathroom until they were gone.

"Are you still going to snap at me if I say we should go get a drink?" says Cho.

Zacharias is tempted to, just to shake it up a bit, but he shakes his head. "You're paying though," he says, just so he doesn't come off as a nice person. "I'm a secretary, you're a research specialist and reversal agent."

Cho muses over that. "Alright," she says. "I'll put you down two drinks. Nothing fancy."

It's fucking ridiculous to haggle over a trip to the bar like this but Zach's not about to get less ridiculous. "I'll take it."


End file.
